Top ten films

Selected by Jake Wilson

ERNST Lubitsch made many great films, but this 1940 “workplace comedy,” set in a small Budapest gift shop, is uniquely gentle and extremely touching. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan lead the ensemble cast as colleagues who can't stand each other in person but carry on an unknowing flirtation by post. 35-millimetre print. ACMI, today and tomorrow, 11am. Seniors $6, carers free.

2. THE BIRDS (120 minutes) PG

A BUDDING romance between a lawyer (Rod Taylor) and a rich party girl (Tippi Hedren) is interrupted when birds launch an unprovoked mass attack on a Californian coastal town. Alfred Hitchcock was at the peak of his poetic powers when he made this seminal 1963 disaster movie, a technical tour de force. Digitally projected. Astor, today, 2pm and 7.30pm. Double feature with Psycho.

3. CITIZEN KANE (119 minutes) PG

IT MIGHT not be the greatest film ever made, but Orson Welles' prismatic portrait of a media baron who got everything and nothing he wanted belongs on everybody's shortlist. A lament for lost innocence, a trenchant political cartoon and a dazzling piece of showmanship. 35-millimetre print. Astor, tomorrow, 7pm. Double feature with King Kong.

4. BAMBI (67 minutes) G

THIS 1941 fable about a young deer and his forest friends saw Walt Disney and his team largely setting aside cartoon shenanigans in favour of an idealised, even mystical view of nature. For better or worse it's an animation landmark – and no film has ever been more ruthlessly engineered to make children cry. Digitally projected. ACMI, today and tomorrow, 3pm. Tickets $6 or less.

5. CLAY (60 minutes) M

IT'S astounding that Giorgio Mangiamele – an Italian immigrant starting out from the tradition of neo-realism – should have been making films in 1960s Melbourne at all, more so that they should show such purity of spirit. This existential romance from 1965 involves a mysterious fugitive (George Dixon) and a yearning sculptor (Janina Lebedew). 35-millimetre print. ACMI, today, 4pm. Tickets $6 or less.

6. TOTAL RECALL (113 minutes) MA

ARNOLD Schwarzenegger plays a construction worker who travels to Mars to reclaim his former identity in Paul Verhoeven's violent, sexy 1990 action blockbuster, based on a typically mind-bending short story by Philip K. Dick. Like most of Verhoeven's Hollywood work, it's both an extravagantly cartoonish entertainment and a mordant joke at the expense of the viewer. Digitally projected. Rooftop Cinema, tonight, 9.30pm.

7. SIXTEEN CANDLES (93 minutes) PG

NO ONE filmed teenage boredom and disgust quite like the late John Hughes. This 1984 comedy is a strange mix of the timeless and the horribly dated, but the dialogue is sharp and the stars – authentically petulant Molly Ringwald and newly hatched geek Anthony Michael Hall – have lost none of their appeal. Digitally projected. Shadow Electric (Abbotsford Convent), tomorrow, sundown (around 8.45pm).

8. TO ROME WITH LOVE (112 minutes) M

WOODY Allen's world view may not have deepened with age, but nor has he lost his gift for one-liners and zany notions. Here he spins four tall tales set in the Eternal City, involving a neurotic retiree (Allen himself), a glamorous hooker (Penelope Cruz), an emotionally confused student (Jesse Eisenberg) and a humble office worker (Roberto Benigni). Digitally projected. Shadow Electric (Abbotsford Convent), tonight, sundown (around 8.45pm).

9. WONDER WOMEN! THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN SUPERHEROINES (62 minutes) M

POSITIONING Wonder Woman at the head of the pop tradition of action heroines, Kristy Guevara-Flanagan's feminist documentary gets through a lot of material in a brisk hour, even if the focus remains exclusively on the US. Talking-head commentators include Gloria Steinem, Kathleen Hanna and (all too briefly) Buffy writer Jane Espenson. Digitally projected. ACMI, today 5.30pm and 8.30pm, tomorrow 5.45pm.

10. BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (92 minutes) M

A MEEK British sound engineer (Toby Jones) is summoned to Italy to work on a gory horror film and finds himself at the mercy of its bullying director (Antonio Mancino). Swaddled in layers of film buff allusion, Peter Strickland's claustrophobic psychological thriller recalls classics ranging from Brian de Palma's Blow Out to Roman Polanski's The Tenant. Digitally projected. ACMI, today 6.45pm, tomorrow 4pm and 7.15pm.